Published 11:15 am, Monday, August 1, 2011

Willie Yarber is well known in the Houston area as a successful high school basketball coach.

In eight years as the girls coach at Elkins his teams won two district titles and advanced at least to the third round of the playoffs three times.

What most people outside of Fort Bend ISD may not know, however, is that he’s even better at what he does in the classroom.

Yarber has been hired as the head of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program at Willowridge High School. AVID is a college readiness system designed to increase schoolwide learning and performance. The program accelerates learning, uses research based methods of effective instruction, provides meaningful and motivational professional development and acts as a catalyst for systemic reform and change.

Rumors surfaced during the 2010-11 school year that Willowridge may have to shut down due to numerous problems, mostly due to the fact it does not have enough students. The school also has issues with discipline and truancy.

Hiring Yarber to run the AVID program in addition to another role that requires him to implement other programs to help curb any of the school’s myriad problems is one of the steps Willowridge is taking to turn things around.

Yarber said he was not looking to leave coaching when he was asked if he would apply for the job.

"It’s a wonderful honor to me to be placed in this position," Yarber said. "They are putting a lot of trust and confidence in me. I was very pleased to be coaching and teaching at Elkins. It’s hard to say no when somebody puts that much trust in you."

Elkins qualified for the girls basketball playoffs five times in Yarber’s eight seasons. The 2006 team was the best in school history. It won the school’s first district title and advanced to the regional semifinals. Last season the Lady Knights rallied from a poor showing during the non-district season to share the district title and then played into the third round of the playoffs for the second year in a row.

Yarber said the most difficult part is leaving the day-to-day relationships he built through basketball.

"I would wake up one moring and my heart was still at Elkins," he said. "Then I would wake up the next morning and thought what an incredible opporutnity to make an impact at another school. It is going to be an adjustment. It probably won’t hit me until October or November when the season really kicks off."